Sometimes you have to prove the obvious to get something done. The mosquitofish
is being distributed around the world to control mosquitoes--without regard for
its effects on other aquatic species. New research shows that mosquitofish
devour tadpoles just as readily as mosquito larvae and so can decimate native
amphibians.

"Handing out exotic mosquitofish as a control of mosquitoes is an outdated
government policy that needs to be changed," says Lee Kats of Pepperdine
University in Malibu, California, who presents this research with Jeff Goodsell
in the August issue of Conservation Biology. This is the first study to demonstrate
unequivocally that mosquitofish show no preference for mosquito larvae.

Distributed by the Los Angeles County Mosquito Abatement and Vector Control
Center, mosquitofish have become established in many streams in the Santa Monica
Mountains within the last 15 years. Because these streams have no native fish,
the amphibians that live there lack defenses against fish predation. Amphibians
native to these streams include the California newt, the Pacific treefrog and
the California treefrog, which is a candidate for protected status.

Previous studies have shown that mosquitofish eat amphibians such as California
newt larvae in Santa Monica Mountain streams. But these studies have been
criticized because the mosquitofish were not offered alternate prey, leaving
them no choice but to eat newt larvae.

Kats and Goodsell addressed this criticism by offering mosquitofish both Pacific
treefrog tadpoles and mosquitoes. The researchers put bottomless two-by-two-foot
tubs in fishless Santa Monica Mountain streams and added two mosquitofish, 20
tadpoles and 40 (low-density) or 80 (high density) mosquito larvae. These
predator and prey densities approximated those naturally found in local streams.

After six hours, the mosquitofish in the "low-density" tubs had eaten all the
mosquito larvae and more than 85% of tadpoles. Similarly, t'"/>

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